The trees may be bare and the fields may look a bit lifeless, but fear not! Your local greenmarket will still be stocked with food aplenty.
Winter squash, of which there are several varieties including acorn, butternut, honeynut, and kabocha, are still available. Warm up with a Butternut Squash soup, or enjoy some Roasted Honeynut Sides.
Collard greens and parsnips are some of the remaining items that are still picked fresh. Collard greens are a good source of vitamin K, which promotes healthy bones. Parsnips taste very similar to carrots (I can confirm, as I was once blindfolded and tried them both at the same time), and are only a bit sweeter than carrots.
Everything else available right now will come from storage. But don’t let “storage” deter you from buying local produce. Humans have been storing produce for as long as we’ve been growing produce. Cold temperatures and a controlled atmosphere keep harder produce — like apples, pears, potatoes, and carrots — fresh for longer.
Some greenmarket foods available from storage include apples, beets, cabbage, carrots, herbs, kale, leeks, pears, potatoes, shell beans, turnips, and winter squash.
Shell beans, including black-eyed peas and lima beans, are the fresh alternative to canned beans. The shell is thick and fibrous and needs to be removed before cooking. Shell beans work in any variety of recipes, and can replace dried beans easily. The benefit of fresh shell beans is that they are more tender and take a fraction of the time to cook as dried beans. Either way, beans are a great pantry staple in the winter and are a really climate-friendly meal.
Many greenmarket sellers offer fresh maple syrup. Use maple syrup to sweeten your coffee, liven up your roasts, or add a more complex sugar to your baked goods!
As always, meat, dairy, fish, honey, and bread are available year-round at greenmarkets.
To find a greenmarket near you in Brooklyn, go to GrowNYC.com or JustFood.com.
